from Which Once Had Been Meadow

As it is split from the leaf this blank leafAs it is split from the meadow this blank meadowAs it is split from the poppy this red poppy

(Amor)

As it is my meadowAs it is my leafAs it is my lakeAs it is my styleAs it is my ray

Do the buds bud in springDo the buds budIs the grass deadIs he toying with me

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Painful voyageinto the lilacHe fills you with his fluidTears off a flowerSucks out the sweetnessPainful voyageSoon he will burst the entire cluster

Microscopic black fliesWill loosen and fallSoon they will have no homeStamenPistilsHeavy redVioletAgainst his leather gulletWhich is uncinchedA skeleton of wood and evilLonely brown threadSoon he will burst the entire cluster

Iodine

Unfold the leavesThrust into the core. There is no coreWhen you are in the middleThrust in between the pitiful leavesThere is no rose. When you are in the roseSour foldsThere is no reedWhen you come with fluidThere is nofluid,Giovanni

Nerve System

It is a cityOr a city inside the actual cityAlong the streets. With sunken shoresYou wanted to pick these for mereceptacles that we needBut I cried,These are not the onesDuring the soul’s wandering

Could I immediately measure and senseThem against my lowermostIt is a branching

Reply

I go to you in the monasteryThe anesthesia hardens the wallsFar over there the building is murkyI arrange my desolate raysI place all the raysAll in one rowDo you not stand next to meI loved the small raysIt is always so emptyLet me fill that empty spaceIt would also hurtto swathe one’s arms

The stars blink. Console the playmateNow that he always comes homeAs if they wanted to awaken an inner lifeOn this sideThe building is a blockI love youAnd in its undestroyed truth

Ann Jäderlund is the author of ten books of poetry as well as two children’s books and several plays. Since the late 1980s—she published Som en gång varit äng (Which Once Had Been Meadow) in 1988—she has been one of the most influential poets in Sweden. In 2012, she received much acclaim for her translations of Emily Dickinson, Gång på gång är skogarna rosa (Frequently the Woods are Pink).

Johannes Göransson is the author of six books of poetry, including, most recently, The Sugar Book, as well as the translator of several books of poetry, including Kim Yi-deum’s Cheer Up Femme Fatale, Aase Berg’s Hackers, and Ann Jäderlund’s Which Once Had Been Meadow (forthcoming from Black Square Editions). He teaches at the University of Notre Dame and edits Action Books.